The Senate Banking Committee Thursday voted 12-10 to approve the nomination of Richard Cordray to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
However, the party-line vote means Republicans intend to block Cordray from being confirmed by the full Senate until structural reforms to the CFPB are enacted.
Republican Senators like Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, contend a massive new government bureau will have too much control of the economy to be run by one individual.
Under the leadership of Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Republicans are demanding a restructuring of the CFPB that turns the agency into a five-member commission which would be more accountable to Congress.
"No nominee for the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection should receive consideration until the Democrats are ready to stop playing politics and work with us to make the Bureau accountable,” said Sen. Shelby. “It’s their choice.”
A former Ohio attorney general, Cordray is currently the chief of enforcement at the CFPB.
